My (soon to be ex) company gets around the rebuild step by doing annual layoffs.

they are so clueless. half of my team got laid off on friday, and we got an email from our manager inviting us to attend a different team's standup in addition to our own so we could feel more "connected".

the only thing another standup is going to make me feel is fucking pissed off

My employer had a slightly better reason to do layoffs, because our financial situation then was pretty bad and still is pretty bad. I don't mean "we got 30% profit instead of 31%!", but "we aren't making money and we have no money". Layoffs were more understandable than usual given the situation and circumstances.

And even in these conditions, I still think it was a terrible decision. Morale was ultra low after the layoffs, and the situation led to quite a few people who did survive to leave of their own volition for better opportunities. We lost talent in the layoffs, and then we lost talent in everyone who felt like they were on a sinking ship. Which, in turn, has led to even more people feeling like it's a sinking ship with the writing on the wall.

My management chain is completely gone. I directly report to an executive now, where previously there was my supervisor, his supervisor, his supervisor, and then the executive. Where there were perhaps 10-15 system engineers both in and outside my team, there are now like 3-4 of us thanks to layoffs and departures. And if one of these guys leave, I'm going to find a new job and put in my two weeks once I land one.

The silver lining is that my job security has never been better, because they've created a situation where they literally can't afford to lose me or my colleagues. We're all on critical projects, and at the point where a new person just wouldn't be helpful, because they don't have the proper time to learn and get caught up before we need these projects finished.

In short? Layoffs are a terrible decision, even when you're in terrible financial straits. You risk a death spiral that makes things even worse and worse.

I always jump ship after a layoff. They invariably ask you to do more work for the same price. Half the time at places I've worked the company goes under soon anyways.

You get a bigger raise with a new job than staying at the old job, and I assume it's even worse after layoffs. When I tell job interviewers "because layoffs", they can easily verify it and confirm I didn't just get fired for being an asshole.

What happened at my work was they did like 2 mini layoffs, then a medium one, then a big one that was split into 3 parts, all this over the course of about two years. Morale here is more or less in free fall, we've alienated our user base, and I don't expect it to recover for many years.